On the NBA Finals

The NBA Finals are over. For the eighth consecutive season, the playoffs have ended without LeBron James winning a ring. For the first time, LeBron not winning a ring was a cause for celebration in Cleveland.

My feelings, as they would have been if the Heat had won a championship, are mixed.

I’m happy for Dirk Nowitzki, who has always been one of the NBA’s true class acts, is a once-in-a-generation joy to watch, and was the most disrespected superstar in the NBA because of a missed free throw in the 2006 Finals and a first-round matchup ambush in his subsequent MVP season.

I’m happy for Jason Kidd, one of the best pure points to ever play the game and someone who stayed in the league by fighting through microfracture surgery and adding a three-point shot.

I’m sad for Erik Spoelstra, a brilliant young coach who was maligned all season long, will be under scrutiny until the Heat do win a championship, and would have won a championship if his best player had shown up in the fourth quarter of Game 2 or any of Game 4.

I’m sad for Big Z, for obvious reasons.

I’m truly, truly happy for everyone in Cleveland who got a happy end to the season after some really rough playoff exits and a miserable regular season. Was I celebrating? I was not. But I’m still happy for everybody that got to. Wife/girlfriend analogies have become their own cliche post-“Decision,” but my analogy is this: when you see your friend get married, you’re not happy because he got to marry the person you wanted to marry. You’re happy because you see him happy. I’m never one to begrudge happiness, even a night of it, however people may find it. It’s very difficult to find. And a lot of people I consider friends found happiness at the Heat losing.

So how do I feel about LeBron choking away the finals? I’m having a hard time celebrating it, although I don’t begrudge those who do. I spent a lot of time on this blog and on other outlets defending LeBron as a player, and those feelings didn’t change when LeBron changed teams. I’ve never tried to defend “The Decision.” I think it was silly and egotistical. I think LeBron is kind of silly and egotistical. (Latest evidence: his post-Finals “my life is better than yours” comments.) I thought he was kind of silly and egotistical when he played for the Cavs, and made the case that I didn’t really care about it. I stand by that.

Still, for whatever reason, I never really, really got angry about “The Decision.” I don’t know exactly why I didn’t, but here are some of my theories:

1. I was at a really good place in my life when “The Decision” happened. I was 21, it was summer, and I had a great one. I spent 4th of July weekend with friends at UCSB, and I still consider that weekend to be the best weekend of my life. The night of “The Decision,” I was packing to go to Summer League in Las Vegas, where I got to meet and hang out with some awesome people, watch 4-5 basketball games a day, live in a house that ESPN paid for, and got paid to write about all of it.

2. After the Boston series, I knew LeBron was gone. He played like crap in those last two games, but the team was completely exposed and dismantled as a whole, and his supporting cast didn’t provide him with compelling reasons to stay. I understand why some people had faith that he would stay, but I knew he was gone. The week or so after those playoffs ended were rough for me. I didn’t really leave the house too much. I drank too much. I grew what my friends referred to as a “downward spiral beard.” I sort of got my depression and anger out of the way early.

By the time the actual “Decision” came around, I’d made peace with the fact LeBron was going to leave. At some point well before the thing happened, I’d made the cognitive disconnect between “the best player in the world is leaving my favorite team and I’m not going to get to cover him anymore” and “where will this bizarre, fascinating, free-agency journey end?”

3. From a really selfish point of view that I don’t expect anyone else to understand, I was happy that the decision (lowercase) was actually scheduled and set up on a specific day. As I mentioned, I was 21 and enjoying my summer, hopping from couch to couch, and my great fear was that the big news would break at 2 AM and I’d be at a party with no access to the internet. The way things were, with the news essentially breaking a day before the actual show and the show taking place at a scheduled time, I got to sit down and craft my post on the ordeal on a solid schedule, which made my life easier. Again, totally selfish reason.

So then the NBA Finals happened, and LeBron choked away the Finals. My mix of emotions comes from this thought: the Finals weren’t a referendum on the LeBron that made “The Decision” and left Cleveland in a silly and tone-deaf fashion. They were a referendum on the best player in the history of the franchise, the one who brought Cleveland so much joy for his seven years with the team.

When I’ve talked to Scott Raab or a lot of other people about LeBron, they don’t just talk about the fiasco of a television show; they talk about how LeBron did nothing as the Cavs got blown out in Game 5, and seemed content to accept their fate at the bitter end of Game 6. Those performances were used as evidence that LeBron already had one foot out the door on the Cavs, and couldn’t wait to bolt to Miami with Wade and Bosh. Well, he did the same thing in the fourth quarter of Game 2 and all of Game 4. It wasn’t a Cleveland thing, it was a “LeBron doesn’t really know what to do when the game/series isn’t going his way” thing. And the Heat simply broke at the end of Game 6 against the Mavericks the way the Cavs did against the Celtics — you could see it in their body language after one last offensive rebound for Dallas.

Also, LeBron choking away the Finals almost reinforces the fact that he made the correct basketball decision by leaving Cleveland. He lost the Finals with Wade going off at will and Bosh quietly having an excellent series — I can’t honestly imagine how he would have been able to get the Cavs to the promised land in the near future playing anything like the way he did in those Finals.

If he’d failed to mesh with Wade and Bosh and the Heat’s lack of depth had proved crippling, that would have been one thing. But he got all the support he could have possibly dreamed of, and still failed. That’s not about “The Decision.” That’s about the player. The same player whose abilities we all believed in for so long.

The same way I imagine most readers of this blog never imagined that LeBron would never leave Cleveland, I never imagined he’d choke away a golden opportunity to win a championship. Plenty of people, including myself, knew the former could and would happen. Plenty of people also knew the latter could happen, and I was not one of them. I am stunned, I am disappointed, I am confused.

The Boston massacre of 2010 was as much about the roster being built for Orlando as it was about LeBron’s poor play, although the latter was a huge factor. Game 1 of the Orlando series was the deciding game there, and that may have been LeBron’s best playoff game as a Cav, right down to the final possessions. LeBron exploded offensively in Game 7 against Boston in 2008. The Cavs had no business being in the same arena as the Spurs in 2007 or the Pistons in 2006. And on and on it goes. This time, though, LeBron has nobody to blame but himself, and I have nobody but myself to blame for trusting in his abilities and mentality.

(For those of you interested, this is the story behind my Heat Index sojourn. It was never about The Cavs, The Heat, LeBron, or anything else. It was about the writing. I was asked to join a really great team of writers and editors and provide insight, mostly because of how well I’d come to know LeBron’s game and the narratives that had grown around him in his seven years in Cleveland. It was a golden opportunity as a kid fresh out of college and paying his own bills by writing about basketball to get great exposure, make some money, and work with great people, and I took it. I have no regrets whatsoever.

Also, I was exhausted at the end of each NBC/Heat Index day, and knew Mo, Kevin, Colin, and Ryan had things running smoothly here without me, and I didn’t feel I had much Cavs-related stuff to contribute at the end of a day of obsessively watching and writing about the playoffs.

I will also add this — I’ve written just about everywhere on the internet in the last four years ((five if you count my days writing on Cavs message boards)), and I can say that the ESPN experience has, without question, been my best one. My pieces are well scheduled, placed, and edited, the communication with the editors is constant, the higher-ups show interest in my work and my well-being, I get to write alongside people I have admired for years, and I’ve made lasting friendships. After all the time I’ve spent doing this as both an amateur and a professional, I’ve come to really, really value those things in a way that’s hard for most to understand. So that’s my story. I apologize if you have a serious issue with it.)

Getting back on message — why is LeBron’s failure a cause for celebration, even though it wasn’t really a referendum on his “Decision?”

I had a hard time finding an answer to this until I started thinking about Carlos Boozer. I dislike Carlos Boozer. I think that lying to the team’s owner, fooling him into not picking up his option, and bolting for more money was, objectively, worse than LeBron going to a better team as an unrestricted free agent and announcing it with a silly television show. (LeBron’s extra crimes: being born in Cleveland and being much better at basketball than Carlos Boozer.)

I’ve always dealt with the Boozer fiasco by convincing myself that the Cavaliers were better off for it — they made desperation moves that ended up landing them Drew Gooden and Anderson Varejao after losing Boozer, which I feel was ultimately a good thing.

I feel like Boozer screwed over the Cavaliers in an inexcusable fashion, albeit one made possible by front-office incompetence. I also believe that Carlos Boozer is a vastly overrated player who doesn’t play defense, settles for too many mid-range jumpers, and doesn’t help his teams nearly as much as he’s supposed to. I’d like to think that these beliefs exist independently from each other, but they probably don’t.

When I see Carlos Boozer fail in the playoffs, I feel a sense of happiness. It’s not a happiness that comes from a quest for revenge, or a personal ill-will towards him. It’s a happiness that comes from relief. When I see Boozer fail, I feel relieved that the Cavs weren’t doomed by Boozer’s fiasco of a departure from Cleveland. I imagine the happiness at LeBron failing in the Finals comes from that same place of relief. The LeBron that showed up against Dallas would not have won the Cavs a championship — in fact, he probably would have caused them to leave the playoffs earlier after Boston or Chicago made him struggle and put the team in any sort of position where they had to fight for their lives.

That feeling may go away if the Heat pull themselves together next year and win the championship, although they’ll have a harder road back to the finals than most think, but for now, the sense of relief is there. I invite you to correct me if I’m wrong, and I imagine that Tom might in the next two installments of his post, but I believe it’s relief that Cavs fans reveled in after the NBA Finals were over.

27 Responses to “On the NBA Finals”

You don’t need to defend your Heat Index decision. You’re young, a very talented writer and you have a wealth of knowledge about LeBron’s game. Taking the opportunity to work more directly for ESPN is a no brainer.

Loyalty is one thing. But if anyone is expecting you to exclusively cover this (currently) dire team at the expense of your own journalism career then they need to get a serious reality check.

Great post by the way (missed you!). I look forward to more great articles from you on the new look Cavs once we get next year started.

Well done, as always. Personally, the outcome of these Finals make me happy primarily because I didn’t want a championship to come so easily to the Heat. I can accept that they’ll probably win a title at some point if they keep the “big three” together – though I’m less sure of that now than I was a month ago. But to have it come so easily, in their 1st season after “the Decision,” would simply have reinforced and validated all their arrogance and egomania. Secondarily, I think the Mavs are a team worthy of respect, and I’m happy to see Dirk shed all the labels he’s been stuck with since 2006.

P.S.-Although I admittedly was rooting against Lebron, I never thought he would fail as spectularly as he did, and it find it disconcerting. It makes you wonder, was his confidence on the court always this fragile, and if not, what was it that finally took away his mojo? Boston 2008? The Orlando series? He reminds me of Clyde Drexler in the early ’90s – excellent player and speculatar athlete; billed as the poor man’s Jordan until Jordan destroyed him in the ’92 Finals; and after that, he had to be traded to Hakeem’s Rockets to have any chance at a ring.

You implicitly assume that LeBron would suffer from the same mental lapses, the same lack of a post-up game, the same weaknesses had he had the steely resolve to remain a Cavalier and figure out a way to engineer a championship in Cleveland. I agree with Bill Simmons–the biggest disappointment about LeBron is that he did not plumb the depths of his soul to become that stronger, angrier player who could bring his hometown team a title. As a native Clevelander, that he rubbed our faces in it made it all the worse, and in my book clearly justifies rooting against him forever (though certainly not hating him as a person).

Reflecting on the way these finals went, and on LeBron’s postgame comments, ought to make you wonder if there was a serious flaw in your argument that being “kind of silly and egotistical” is a fine thing for a basketball superstar to be. It’s not a good thing for anyone to be, let alone a great champion.

P.S. For all of our sakes, I hope the Cavs give you more to be interested in and write about on this site in the coming years, but it’s ridiculous for anyone to criticize you for taking such a great professional opportunity with ESPN. Just remember you are very fortunate.

Another clear, insightful post, John. Thanks. (Regarding the Heat Index: haters gonna hate. Keep doing your thing. You’re one of the best young basketball writers out there. And I say that as someone who once swore–out of pure spite–that he would never give the Heat Index a single page-view.)

I do have a serious question for you: What qualifies Spoelstra as a “brilliant young coach” in your mind? I have no agenda against the man; I know he was dropped into an extremely difficult situation, and I admire him for becoming the first figure since Keith Dambrot (?) to stand up to LeBron. But we just saw his team completely implode down the stretch of three different NBA Finals games, offensively and defensively. It wasn’t just LeBron; the whole team looked flummoxed by Dallas’ zone, for example, even late in the series. Furthermore, the argument that Spoelstra is vindicated because he would have won the Finals if LeBron had played better seems circular — isn’t it the coach’s responsibility to bring out the best in his players?

“Also, LeBron choking away the Finals almost reinforces the fact that he made the correct basketball decision by leaving Cleveland. He lost the Finals with Wade going off at will and Bosh quietly having an excellent series — I can’t honestly imagine how he would have been able to get the Cavs to the promised land in the near future playing anything like the way he did in those Finals.”

Great write-up here John, but I do disagree with this paragraph here. My thought is, if he’s going to choke away a series (no matter when it is), then who gives a rip who his teammates are? He’s letting them down, whether it’s Mo Williams and Andy Varejao or D-Wade and Bosh. Check that, he DID let them down. All of them.

And, after hearing his postgame comments, it really makes you wonder if he really truly cares about anything other than the fact that he’s LeBron James (something that is becoming more of a punchline than anyone ever expected). For the sake of his career, someone needs to call him out on that, but the question is, who? Who will he listen to?

Nobody who’s ever gone through the ringer known as the journalism industry would ever fault you for taking an opportunity to get some good material published, but I still think the Heat Index is the devil, even though they managed to poach one of the best beat writers out there in Windhorst. I’m really not a big fan of how Truehoop pretty much gave up what’s left of its autonomy by putting it on the Truehoop network.

Also, your judgement is clouded by your non-cleveland descent. Not only is Lebron suffering a form of retribution for the crap he pulled in Cleveland and with the Descision, but now we know that we didn’t really lose as much as we thought when Lebron left, and that’s kind of comforting. Personally, I can say I’m completely over Lebron from the standpoint of being a cavs fan. Sure, I’ll still root against him at every turn because it’s the right thing to do, but i’m excited that the cavs are going to start building a team that’s really the cavs, not Lebron’s. For years, the cavs teams have been made up of Lebron and a bunch of rentals. Aside from Andy, who was really a cav after Lebron left? Now, were gonna bring in some young guys and some new blood actually dedicated to playing for the cavs, not just to win a championship behind Lebron. If all goes well, the cavs organization is going to be more like what it was during the Price-Daugherty-Nance-Hot Rod years than what it was during the Lebron era.

Nice write-up. I don’t ‘blame’ you for trying to move your career forward – as I told a friend of mine, just don’t forget your roots and where it all started.

I’m of a minority of peope who wasn’t bothered at all by “the decision”. In my view, it was nothing more than a press conference on steroids. IMO enough people watched and reacted, showing that it was ‘worth’ producing (if the ratings were super low, then it would not have been). Honestly, I prefered that he formally anounced his decision versus just tweeting about it or something. Do I really dislike the fact that he left Cleveland – absolutely! But I have no problem with the production of “The Decision”.

I’ve made a ton of arguments that LeBron is the best player in the world – and I still feel that way. Last year in Cleveland and this year in Miami, I guess it shows he get’s nervous on the big stage. To some degree I fault Eric Spolestra as a coach for not recognizing how best to utilize LeBron in this series. And I’m curious why you would say he’s a good coach. If anything, he got outcoached this series and many times throughout the season. Having 2 of the 3 best players in the world on your team helps a coach tremendously, so it’s really difficult for me to give coach spo a passing grade.

I’ve always sorta defended LeBrons attitude of being a ‘me first’ player. I’ve alway respected the fact that he’s still so close to all his HS friends and how his teammates always seem to really like him. Yes, you can argue that letting his friends run his ‘brand’ was/is a mistake and instead he should have gotten a ‘professional’ team that knows how to really run things, but this loyalty to his friends I’ve pointed to and said, these are the guys that have known him the longest and he’s really sticking by them – so that’s something to commend. Even when he speaks of himself in third person, I’ve been o.k. with that. Up until now… the whole “My life is better than yours” comments really seem to have pushed me to believe all the negative aspects reported about his personality. It truly seems like he has a superiority complex or something to that nature.

I don’t feel sorry for or ‘hate’ LeBron or the Heat. I’m actually just Happy for Dirk, Kidd and Terry. I feel bad that more people have focused on the Heat losing and LeBron underperforming than on the Mavs winning. Gilbert was right in his tweet, there are no shortcuts in basketball. The Mavs won as a team and I think Dirk showed LeBron that at single superstar can get it done. Dirk is more loved in Dallas than LeBron will ever be in Miami, Cleveland or anywhere else (even after he wins a ring or two).

I’ve been thinking about it for the last couple hours, and I don’t know if I’m really buying Spoelstra as a championship caliber coach, but he is young, seems to have some talent in there and has a good working relationship with D Wade, which is huge when you consider the dearth of experienced FA head coaches out there with championship credentials, which is the kind you could hire and expect to have any success off the bat with guys like bosh, wade and especially lebron. So there’s not really much you can do if you’re miami. If you think about it, Detroit once thought that Carlisle didn’t have the chops to win a championship, and look at him now. He might have even gotten one with the pacers if his three best players hadn’t lost their minds and brawled with fans in Detroit. More I think about it, Carlisle has always been a great coach that just got the fuzzy end of the lollipop from his employers and fate. This is the third team he’s turned into a defensive beast.

So much of the national narrative at the time of the decision was, “LeBron is too good for Cleveland,” and that he’d be doing us some huge favor by sticking around. But now it seems that it was LeBron who wasn’t good enough for Cleveland. That’s nice.

at first I was reading this and thought: Why does Krolik feel the need to defend his personal decisions so much?

Then I read some of the comments on here and realized why,

But others were spot when they said that you are doing big things, John. Keep it up and I am sure one day you’ll become “the next bob ryan” or whomever you set your sights on, much quicker than Lebron becomes “the next michael jordan.”

Thx for rooting for us to beat the cHeat. First, I can’t stand them. Arrogant-selfish-childish-ignorant. I’m so glad my Mavs whooped these clowns. Second, the pre-celebrations as if they won the championship? Really? Morons. We showed them. Third, who are these clowns chalmers and haslem? Chalmers all of a sudden thinks he has become Shannon Brown. He can suck it, puto. As for Haslem? This mongrel clown misses all year, comes back in the eastern finals and thinks he is Dwight Howard trying to stop Dirk? This clown all of a sudden is healthy and thinks he can check Dirk? Moron had no idea this wasn’t the same Dirk he guarded in . He has evolved his game to a completely new level.

Thx again Cavs fans for the support. My best wishes to Cleveland rebuilding and making a comeback without that queen.

Krolik, please don’t take your talents to Cowbell Kingdom and join with Zach Harper. You’ll be the most hated NBA bloggers in history if you do. All horrible attempts at jokes aside, keep up the awesome work.

John – been a fan for a while and I give you nothing but support when it comes to the Heat Index. Anyone would be crazy not to take that kind of opportunity to cover a historic team with the biggest names in the business.

On the subject of the post – I don’t think that you need to hate LeBron or anything just because you are a Cleveland fan. I think what I feel though is that often you, especially in regard to the LeBron situation, always play the analyst, the rationalist. Obviously, you’re great at it, or you wouldn’t be covering basketball for ESPN. But in addition to this excellent analysis, I want this community to always be a place where the Cavaliers are talked about from the heart. And because of your ability as a writer, I want to hear from you, from the heart. You article “Requiem for a Shooter” is my favorite thing you’ve written precisely because of that quality. Your sense of empathy and uncertainty/discomfort about the reality of the world that Marbury came from are what make the piece so compelling. It’s not just about the book or the player, bit it captures some small part of the experience of Marbury and of watching Marbury. I’d love to see more of this from you on this forum as well-not just analysis of the Cavs, but thoughtful heartfelt writing about the experience of following the Cavs. I think you have a great ability to write this way, and when you do write this way on the blog, I always love reading it. I just think that some of that disappeared this season, for whatever reason. I hope this post is the start of the return of that kind of writing.

For all of Lebrons faults and failures, he’s never been accused of beating a woman. He’s never lived with a transient crazy person who forged checks and had multiple identities. Lebrons biggest fault is having a runaway ego, and spitting (figuratively) on the Cleveland fan. So for that we’re happy he lost and the guys we haven’t grown attached to won, even if they’ve committed real crimes? Really??

I don’t know, I guess I’m happier when that co-worker gets a promotion or a neighbor, or friend of a friend has a newborn. Even if I don’t know them that well. The sports culture in this country has become so warped in my opinion. We hate Roethlisberger but if he were winning Super Bowls for our team while raping women on the side, we’d love him. We hate Ray Lewis but if he were acquited of murder while winning super bowls for us and firing up our defense, we’d hero worship him. As long as he didn’t diss us while winning for us.

And thats the other thing, they’re not winning for us. They’re doing it for themselves, their paycheck, their endorsements and their legacy. As long as we keep dropping our dollars on adults playing a kds game, they have every right to feel a sense of entitlement the way Lebron does today. As long as we’re willing to overlook the crimes they commit against society provided they keep winning “for us”, they’ll continue to do those things and get away with them (other than Plaxico).

So yah, Lebron lost and that makes us happy today. But why are we also happy for the Dirk’s, Kidd’s, Cam Newton’s, Roethlisberger’s, etc of the world when they are some of the worst kinds of humans to walk this Earth.

(BTW, this wasn’t to pick on you Nupe but it just seems to be a prevailing sentiment I’ve become more aware of the older I get and the more aware I’ve become of the sports celebrity).

Ultimately, I’m just glad the cHeat didn’t validate the decision by winning in the 1st year. That’s about it. Can we talk draft now? Is Andy healthy? Which rotation players are truly long term pieces? Let’s talk Cavs, people.

Dr. B

PS You know who needs to do some serious soul searching. Those post game remarks for flat out embarrassing. I cringed when I saw them. That kid has no real role models. He’s not a bad guy, just no guidance. Sorry Maverick Carter, you are no role model.

Yea JoeS, as we all know, most men are judged by whether or not their girlfriend is an extortionist. I can’t believe Dirk didn’t know ahead of time that this woman was a blackmail artist, because obviously that’s something you should be able to figure out on a first date.

Dirk walked off the court because the emotion of the moment took a hold of him, because he finally realized that what he worked so hard for had become a reality. Great moment. LBJ walks off the court with time on the clock when losing, cause he’s a punk ass bitch.

LOL…sure go right ahead and pick one name, one hyperbolic statement to focus on and instead of letting the entirety of the comments completely go over your heads. Its impossible to make a singular point about anything on the internet because of preconceived opinions and the inane desire to just bicker back and forth.

The fact remains…as long as any one person can help take “your” team to the promised land, most are more than willing to overlook any transgressions they have. Lebron pre-decision. Jim Thome. Albert Belle. Braylon Edwards. Derrick Anderson. CC Sabathia. And on and on. You name it.
And once that player moves on, bring on the hate. Dirk included, no matter how tight you guys are with him and know how he is off the floor. He helped in beating the big bad evil Lebron so lets support him as much as we can, right? Or did we miss the link in the other thread about how close he was to leaving Dallas if only Lebron and Wade has chosen him instead of Bosh? So much for wanting to win it all for the Dallas fan or for the anti-Lebron contingent. Yay us!

Players (owners too) do not and will not ever care for the fan. But sure, go on feeling happy that these guys in blue won over Cleveland’s public enemy number one. They did it for us after all.

The Lineup: (Click for Author’s Archive)

Nate Smith is an Associate Editor. He grew up in Anchorage, Alaska, and moved to NE Ohio in 2000. He adopted the Cavs in 2003 and graduated from Kent State in 2009 with a BA in English. He can be contacted at oldseaminer@gmail.com or @oldseaminer on Twitter.

Tom Pestak is an Associate Editor. He's from the west side of Cleveland and lives and (mostly) dies by the success and (mostly) failures of his beloved teams. You can watch his fanaticism during Cavs games @tompestak.

Robert Attenweiler is a Staff Writer. Originally from OH, he's long made his home in NYC where he writes plays and screenplays (www.disgracedproductions.com) some of which end up being about Ohio, basketball or both. He has also written for The Classical and the blog Raising the Cadavalier. You can contact him at rattenweiler@gmail.com or @cadavalier.

Benjamin Werth is a Staff Writer. He was born in Cleveland and raised in Mentor, OH. He now lives in Germany where he is an opera singer and actor. He can be reached at blfwerth@gmail.com.

Cory Hughey is a Staff Writer. He grew up in Youngstown, the Gary, Indiana of Ohio. He graduated from Youngstown State in 2008 with a worthless telecommunications degree. He can be contacted at theleperfromwatts@yahoo.com or @coryhughey on Twitter.

David Wood is our Links Editor. He is a 2012 Graduate of Syracuse University with an English degree who loves bikes, beer, basketball, writing, and Rimbaud. He can be reached on Twitter: @nothingwood.

Mallory Factor is the voice of Cavs: The Podcast. By day Mallory works in fundraising and by night he runs a music business company. To see his music endeavors check out www.fivetracks.com. Hit him up at Malloryfactorii@gmail.com or @Malfii.

John Krolik is the Editor Emeritus of Cavs: The Blog. At present, he is pursuing a law degree at Tulane University. You can contact him at johnkrolik@gmail.com or @johnkrolik.

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